Don't judge... Yes, that's instant coffee! I'm the only one who drinks coffee in the GLG household, I don't like the environmental impact of K-cups.. and let me tell you, Nescafe is darn better than Sanka (well, Sanka circa 1990 which tasted like charcoal.. I haven't tried it lately though... ;-)
It's a quiet Sunday, I was enjoying a small afternoon cup of coffee and I pulled out my "Introduction to Library and Information Science" to begin reading chapters 8, 9, 10 for my assignment next week and then it dawned on me, it was a great time to make cookies. I know, I thought it was brilliant timing too!
My favorite peanut butter cookies are the ol' "1 cup of peanut butter + 1 cup sugar + 1 egg" recipe... but I didn't want to use THAT much peanut butter (do you know how expensive peanut butter is these days?) or THAT much sugar... or really...let's be honest...do I need THAT many cookies?
Probably, I don't need any cookies...
A few months ago I bought a used hardback copy of the 1974 edition of the Joy of Cooking. I wanted to get a copy I could actually use since the beloved paperback that my Dad had when I was growing up, is literally falling apart.
I love that cookbook. His favorite chocolate chip cookies came from Ms. Irma Rombauer and probably a bunch of other meals we used to eat growing up like meatloaf, oyster stew, and chicken a' la King. I wonder where Irma learned to make chicken a' la King.
These are basically the peanut butter cookies in Joy of Cooking (1974 ed.), but I made them gluten-free (of course) and halved the recipe. You could easily make this recipe egg free, If you choose to do that I would replace it with 1 tablespoon of water mixed with 1 teaspoon of ground flax seeds. Stir that mixture together and allow it to 'gel.'
If you decide to double the recipe below, just use a whole egg instead of an egg white (or double up on the flax seed substitute.)
Basic Peanut Butter Cookies
adapted from the 1974 edition of 'Joy of Cooking' by Irma Rombauer
gluten-free, soy-free, easily egg-free, vegetarian
yields 30 - 1.5" cookies
Wet Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup butter or margarine of choice, (or even extra peanut butter if you're a big fan)
- 1/2 cup peanut butter (we like chunky, all natural)
- 1 egg white (or 1 tablespoon water mixed with 1 teaspoon ground flaxseeds)
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour
- 1/4 cup arrowroot starch (or starch of choice -- potato starch, cornstarch, tapioca starch, etc...)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In a large bowl cream together the brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, and peanut butter, until creamy and fluffy.
- Stir in the egg white and vanilla.
- In another bowl whisk together all dry ingredients.
- Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients until you have a sticky, slightly wet cookie dough.
- Drop batter by small spoonfuls (about a teaspoon and a half per cookie) onto the cookie sheet. Placing a few inches between each cookie - we make 12 cookies per batch.
- Flatten cookies by gently pressing with the back of a fork in a criss-cross pattern. To keep the fork from sticking to the cookie, dip in granulated sugar between criss-crosses.
- Bake for 11-14 minutes until the edges of the cookies are golden brown.
